Behind the uniform

Posted on Mon Jul 13th, 2026 @ 4:32am by Captain Akeno Misaki & Captain Elias McEntyre

1,545 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Hunted
Location: Ready Room
Timeline: After "Returning, One More, To the Stars

Elias could feel the tension radiating from the crew, the covert looks, the glares. They were all putting on fronts. This was not typical. Most crews formed their own personalities, but all Elias saw was them trying to impress him by acting like an upstanding crew, artificially. The only one not giving off tension was Gil.

Elias furrowed his brow before he headed for the ready room, which Akeno had retreated to as soon as the ship was underway.

He tapped the chime impatiently. He needed to nip this in the bud before they got any deeper into this.

Inside the ready room, Akeno froze instantly.

'That could only be one person... Oh God... But everything went well... Could he be saying that I screwed it up? No, surely not?' were the thoughts racing through Akeno's head as she sat bolt upright in her chair.

"Come in," she called.

The doors parted, allowing Elias to enter. He was a man on a mission.

"We need to speak, Captain," Elias said in a serious tone. He wasn't angry, he wasn't mad, just very serious and observant.

Akeno jumped slightly at those words. She seemed to become even straighter than she already was. She placed both hands under her desk. They were firmly clasped together, her nails digging into her palms.

"Is there a problem, Captain?" she asked politely.

"Your crew seems tense, uneasy," Elias began as he took a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk.

"I know you all want to do well because I am evaluating you, but the reactions and performance I've seen are... artificial. Unnatural. Like they're all hiding themselves beneath a veneer of acting professional," Elias continued.

"Let me be as monosyllabic as possible: I do not want special treatment. I don't ask it of anyone, and I do not expect it from anyone."

"I wasn't aware of any special treatment occurring, Captain," Akeno replied plainly. "And yes, we are all a little on edge. No offence, sir, but we are being evaluated by another captain. All of our careers depend on your report to the Admiralty."

Elias furrowed his brow.

"Then I'll be just as blunt. You're putting on a show for my benefit," Elias said bluntly.

'Shit. He found you out, Akeno... Stay cool... Just stay cool...'

"I wouldn't call it 'putting on a show'," Akeno replied. "I can assure you that we're only going about our duties in a professional manner that Starfleet Command expects from us," she explained.

'Come on... That has to get him...' she thought as she locked eyes with him.

"There's doing your duty, and then there is showing me what you expect me to want to see," Elias retorted.

"I don't want to see what you think I want to see. I want to see you all operating how you are used to operating. This evaluation only works if I see the real you, not some marionette performance."

'Crap!'

Akeno's hands trembled under the desk. She looked down at them, keeping her gaze low. She focused on her hands. Her heart pounded in her chest like a drum.

"Tell me. Do you really want to see how I usually run this ship? Will how I run it affect the contents of your report at all?"

"No. The report doesn't hold much value if it's not accurate to how you actually perform as yourselves. So I want to see the real you. Not some version of you that would look good in a report. Your crew too. I don't want them acting out of character. I want them acting like themselves when they're not being watched."

Akeno's shoulders relaxed, visibly slumping from the tense, stiff position she had been holding them in. Finally, she looked up, a few glistening tears in the corners of her eyes. They seemed to sparkle in the light as she met Elias's gaze.

"You know, I was told that if we failed or screwed up another mission, I'd lose this command. I'd lose my crew and..." She paused for a moment, looking away to one side. "...I'd lose my family."

She wiped her eyes with her sleeve before returning her gaze to Elias.

"Speaking of which..." Her expression was replaced with a cheeky, mischievous smirk. "What's the gig with Gil'an, huh? You two seem... close..."

Elias saw the smirk. Though truth be told, he hadn't really hidden their relationship very well.

"Do you recall hearing about the death of Matthew Dougherty? The admiral in command of Starbase 412 near Sector 441?" Elias asked.

Akeno raised an eyebrow.

"You mean the admiral who was in command of the Ba'ku relocation that got busted open when the Enterprise showed up?"

"Exactly," Elias nodded.

"I was part of the recovery effort last June, pulling security for Outpost 40 while the Corps of Engineers were building a more permanent deep-space starbase in orbit. While I was there, my security officer reported that he'd found a stowaway in one of the cargo pods transferred from the planet.

"My chief brought him up to the guest quarters, and there he was—Gil. He was an archivist, working to compare our technology to what they had. What got me was that he called living on Ba'ku an 'agrarian wasteland.' He was quite charming. He asked for a chance to get off-world, and I obliged. We've been dating ever since."

"And now he's my Chief Science Officer," Akeno replied, still maintaining her smirk. "So... did you have anything to do with that?"

"If I did, would that affect how you treat him?" Elias asked.

"He is a capable scientist with decades of experience. He wants to be in the fleet, see the galaxy and do some good. The fact that I am in a relationship with him has no bearing on the fact that Starfleet has rated him A-7 in his field."

Akeno sat back in her chair and relaxed a little.

"Ah... well, you—"

She was cut off by the sound of scratching at the side door that led to the restroom and the access corridor to the remainder of Deck One.

Akeno looked over and reached for her console. With a single tap of her finger, the door swished open.

In walked a rather fluffy, chubby orange cat. Lazily, he wandered over and jumped up onto Akeno's lap, nuzzling her with his face.

The cat then turned and spotted Elias. He relocated himself onto the desk just to Akeno's right and sat down, becoming a fluffy orange loaf. He meowed lazily at Elias before closing his eyes.

"Seems that Isoroku approves of you," Akeno smiled as she ran her hand over his soft fur.

Elias tilted his head in a similar manner to the cat.

"He must think we're kinfolk," he commented with a small smile.

Akeno laughed a little. "Well, you are a Caitian."

She immediately covered her mouth. "Oh... sorry... I didn't mean to... you know..."

She quickly changed the subject. "Anyway..." she began, "if you want to see the real us, then there's a few things you should know."

She leaned back slightly.

"This crew haven't been together very long, but we've been through a lot together. Starfleet thinks we're not producing the results they want. But most of Starfleet are stuck in the past. Every captain claims we're not a military organisation, but ever since the war, that's how they've wanted us to operate."

She slammed a fist down onto the desk.

Isoroku lazily opened a single eye.

"I refuse that!"

She pointed at the deck beneath her feet.

"This is my ship. My family. I will not run this ship like a warship." She paused, her eyes burning with determination. "We're explorers. We're out here to represent the very best of what the Federation has to offer. The Starfleet I signed up for was about improving our understanding of the universe... and our understanding of ourselves."

She took a long, deep breath, allowing the emotion to leave her voice.

"Tomorrow evening. Mess Hall, deck two. Nineteen hundred hours."

A faint smile returned. "You should be there." She looked directly at Elias. "Both of you."

Elias looked genuinely taken aback by the outburst.

"I would say that in times of war we had to become a military, but in times of peace, we are explorers once more. That doesn't mean we can rest on our laurels."

He smiled.

"But 1900 hours in the mess hall... with Gil?"

He gave a small nod.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good."

Akeno smiled.

"Now..."

She leaned forward slightly across the desk, the mischievous smirk returning to her face.

"How about we go back onto the bridge? I think Shiro-chan has had long enough now." She punctuated the sentence with a playful wink.

"We should work on getting her more comfortable with felines and feline-type species," Elias replied with a smile as he stood and headed for the door.

Akeno slipped out from behind the desk.

"Nah," she grinned. "At least not right away."

She folded her arms playfully.

"Wheres the fun in that?"

The two captains exchanged amused smiles before Elias reached the door.

Captain Akeno Misaki
Commanding Officer

Captain Elias McEntyre
Mission Advisor

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